A College Student Ended Her School’s Sexist Sports-Bra Ban With a Brilliant Essay

She published the takedown on The Odyssey.

Rowan University announced this week that it will amend its sports-bra ban following heavy criticism from students about the long-standing policy. The New Jersey university's athletic dress code allegedly barred female student-athletes from wearing their sports bras as tops during practices and games.

The controversy surrounding the sports-bra ban began on November 8 when Rowan University cross-country athlete Gina Capone published an article on The Odyssey criticizing the policy for perpetuating rape culture. "If you're running in a sports bra, then you must be asking for it, right?" wrote Gina. "Well, according to a football player at Rowan University, this is true. I'll have you know the real reason women run in sports bras, and it's not to show off our hard-earned abs. Women, whether they have a six-pack or not, run in sports bras because, quite frankly, it's hot outside. We run in sports bras because our workouts are demanding, challenging, and vigorous."

Gina's article also shared information about a private meeting the women's cross-country team had with the school's women's cross-country coach and the athletic director. "Women running around the track in sports bras at their own practice were claimed to be distracting to the football players on the field during the same time," wrote Gina. She also claims this as the reason the women's cross-country team was expelled from using the university's brand new $4.6 million practice field and instead forced to use the local high school track. The school has since refuted this on Facebook, saying that the reason is the school's one-team-per-venue policy and that's why the cross-country team had to practice at the high school. A report on Outside later pointed out that the school may be exaggerating its policy, saying some alumni from the school have said that "they’ve practiced on the track at the same time as the football and lacrosse teams countless times, and it’s never been an issue."

Ali Houshmand, the university's president, released a statement on Friday via Facebook clarifying the ban's purpose and expressing his support for female students. “Rowan’s Athletic Department has had a longstanding verbal protocol that all athletes must wear shirts, even during practices,” stated Ali. “The verbal policy was adopted as a matter of keeping a level of standards throughout its men’s and women’s programs.” Ali did confirm that the school would no longer enforce this verbal policy and would instead create a written policy that explicitly states female athletes can wear sports bras during practice.

Recently woman athletes of all levels have been fighting back against sexists dress code policies. Just a few months ago, Serena Williams hit the U.S. Open rocking a tutu from her new Nike and Virgil Abloh collaboration right after she received news that the French Open would no longer allow her to wear the black Nike catsuit she debuted at last year's competition. These acts of protests appear to be part of greater effort to prevent institutions from censoring women through sexists dress codes that overwhelmingly target women.